KNOXVILLE, Tennessee -- In its first year under the leadership of Butch Jones, Tennessee is off to an up-and-down start, but the Volunteers have been much better at Neyland Stadium, where they have an upset win over South Carolina and a narrow miss in a last-second loss to Georgia.

Now, coming off of two blowout losses on the road to two of the SEC's top teams in Alabama and Missouri, Tennessee (4-5, 1-4 SEC) faces another big test with No. 9 Auburn on the way to Knoxville.

If Jones is going to come up with a little more Neyland magic, here's three keys to Saturday's game.

1. Get the crowd into the game early.

Most SEC teams would rather get their home games at night, when the crowd is rowdier and the atmosphere is rocking right from the start. An 11 a.m. kickoff -- or high noon in terms of local time -- can leave the crowd figuratively yawning and make the environment a little less of a problem for the visitors.

Unless, of course, Tennessee hits on a big play early or matches Auburn blow-for-blow in the early-going. In any game against a top 10 opponent, a team has to start building momentum early and knock the top team back on its heels. If the Volunteers can avoid Auburn's normal early blitz, the longer they stay in it, the closer they can come.

2. Establish the running game and churn up time of possession.

Arkansas offered a blueprint for slowing down Auburn's offense last week, eating up so much time of possession that the Tigers scored only 14 points in the first half, not because of offensive issues but instead because of a lack of chances.

With Rajion Neal and Marlin Lane at running back -- and a mobile Josh Dobbs at quarterback -- Tennessee's best offensive weapon has been the run so far, and the Vols would be wise to try to follow the Razorbacks' blueprint, eat up clock and keep Auburn's vaunted running game on the sidelines as long as possible. Tennessee's run defense has struggled, and the more snaps the Vols have to face, the harder it will be to keep Tre Mason and Nick Marshall contained.

3. Find a way to force a turnover.

Tennessee's secondary has done a good job creating turnovers this season -- the Vols have picked off 12 passes -- but Marshall has been solid, staying interception-free since the bye week. The blueprint for beating Auburn's offense isn't to shut the Tigers down completely; no team has been able to do that for an entire game. What the Volunteers need to do is create some mistakes, capitalize off of those mistakes and try to stay close intot he fourth quarter.